The present invention relates to a vehicle-body structure which comprises a hinge pillar which is provided at a side part of a vehicle at a position located in back of a front wheel and extends in a vertical direction.
There is a case where a vehicle collides with an obstacle at a position located on an outward side, in a vehicle width direction, of a front side frame of the vehicle, which is called a small overlap collision as a manner of a vehicle frontal collision. When a front wheel of the vehicle moves back and contacts the hinge pillar in the small overlap collision, the hinge pillar is possibly deformed by the front wheel moving back.
Herein, according to a structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open publication No. 2013-141928, a guide means having a slant face is provided inside a hinge pillar (front pillar) and a front wheel is guided toward a vehicle rearward-and-outward side by this guide means in the small overlap collision, whereby the hinge pillar is suppressed from being deformed in the small overlap collision.
In the above-described structure of the patent document, however, the hinge pillar receives a load which is inputted in an inward direction of the vehicle width direction as a reaction force of the above-described guiding by the guide means. Further, since the front wheel is generally supported at one end of a suspension arm (lower arm) and the other end of the suspension arm is supported by an axis extending in the vertical direction at a suspension cross member via a rubber bush, the moving back of the front wheel causes a rotation of the suspension arm around the above-described axis and finally a rear part of the front wheel is displaced inward in the vehicle width direction. Accordingly, when the front wheel hits against the hinge pillar, the load inputted in the inward direction of the vehicle width direction tends to be applied to the hinge pillar even if the front wheel is not guided toward the vehicle rearward-and-outward side. As a result, there is a possibility that when the front wheel hits against the hinge pillar, the hinge pillar may be deformed inward in the vehicle width direction even if the hinge pillar is suppressed from being deformed rearward in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, there is room for improvement.